Austria protests Czech plans to build two new reactors at Temelin

Austria's Ministry for the Environment has expressed protest at plans by
the Czech Ministry for Industry and Trade to build a third and fourth
reactor at Temelin, one of the Czech Republic's two nuclear power plants.
On Tuesday Austrian officials said they had issued a protest at the Czech
Foreign Affairs Ministry, through the Austrian ambassador to Prague. The
protest is said to have stressed that presently the Czech Republic already
produced a ten-percent surplus of electricity for the home market. Those
numbers, Austria says, could rise to as high as 50 percent with the
addition of two new reactors, a move seen as controversial by Vienna
because of the full liberalisation of the electricity market in 2007.

Klaus signs four finance reform-related bills

The president's spokesman Petr Hajek has revealed that Czech president
Vaclav Klaus has signed four bills, out of a total of eleven, related
to the launching of the government's finance reforms. Three of the four
bills signed Tuesday will provide amendments to existing laws on health
insurance, social security, and a tax on the transfer of real estate,
while the fourth will freeze wages for elected officials over a
three-year period. The government is hoping, for example, that its
amendment to social security will help cut down on social security
fraud while stiffening conditions for financial support, motivating the
unemployed to search more actively for work. Meanwhile, the real estate
tax amendment shall make the transfer of real estate cheaper as of July
2004, cutting the current tax from 5 to just 3 percent.

Czech Statistics Bureau: retail sales hit boom in September

New statistics have shown that Czech retail shopping grew at is fastest
annual rate in three-and-a-half years in September. The results were
announced by the Czech Statistics Bureau on Tuesday, reinforcing
analysts' views that buoyant consumption required no further stimulus
through monetary policy. Retail sales quickened to 9.4 percent
year-on-year after a 5.9 percent rise in August. Consumer spending has
propelled the economy in recent quarters as businesses struggled with a
global slowdown and recession in neighbouring Germany, the Czech
Republic's biggest export market. Almost zero inflation and about seven
percent nominal wage growth spurred the Czechs' willingness to spend,
leading to the rise in September.

450 to be laid off at Roznov nad Rahostem electronics plant

US electronics maker ON Semiconductor has revealed it will be moving
its production of semiconductors from Roznov nad Rahostem, in northeast
Moravia, to Malaysia, a move costing some 450 Czech employees their
jobs. Currently the Czech branch employs 1,800 employees in all. On
Tuesday a company spokesman said the move would be completed in less
than a year, however, the Czech branch will retain its design centre
and production plant for the production of integrated circuit chips,
leading to some 80 new jobs. ON Semiconductor, with annual sales around
$1 billion, ranks among the world's largest semiconductor producers.
The company gained a foothold in the Czech Republic in 1999, after
taking over local electronic parts makers Tesla Sezam and Terosil.

Weather

Wednesday is expected to be cloudy with a maximum daytime temperature
of 12 degrees Celsius.